Sorry it's been a while. Here is the training. Also, the night I'm writing this is the National Championship to all of us football fans, so go Georgia!
The training room is different than anything I have ever seen before. Walls splashed with scarlet paint, lined with a dark black that creates a sharp contrast of light and dark, and is admittedly one of the most appealing things my eyes have every viewed. While weapons fill many corners of the room, the training center is not just dedicated to how good you are at attacking. There is strength, agility, and speed training to help improve physical skills. However, intellectual and strategical activities also fill the room, including learning how to make fires, tie knots, camouflage, identify poisonous bugs, berries, and nuts, finding shelter and making your own, and even more. It should be impossible to try everything.
My mind still rests on what I had learned hours earlier, about Sahara being related to the killer of my young brother. With the wicked look in her eye, it looked as if she wanted something so particular from these games. Does she really want to kill more of my family? And if that, how would she even know that Melanie and I were in the games? These questions and many more continue to plague my mind ever since Melanie told me about the relation, which also kept me from taking my much-needed nap before this 10:00 training session. There was no need for my parents to wake me up at 6.
Atala, the head lady of the training center, gives us a brief explanation of the stations, and tells us to avoid physical contact or any form of fighting during training. I decide to go to the agility and reaction time stations first, as I consider those to be two of my weakest spots. I am joined by Dax, the young District 11 boy, Jonas, the slightly older District 10 boy, and many of the careers.
Afraid to go first, I start to back away, hoping someone else will take the lead. I accidentally back into Aleks, the very built boy from District 1. He is 18, and his height and build match his own age. The kids in career districts have much better diets than us in the outer districts, and Aleks is a perfect example.
"Hey hey hey!" Aleks says with a smirk, as I turn to face him. We are both about the same height, but he could definitely beat me in hand to hand combat. Aleks turns me around and gives me a nice pat on the shoulder. I refuse to be intimidated.
"Yeah?" I say, giving my head a slight nod. I can see Diamonda and Trinitee, the girls from 4 and 3, snickering behind Aleks.
Aleks smiles and pats me on the shoulders again. I can tell I've already gotten on his bad side. "Just… watch your step next time, ok pal?"
Pal. What a derogatory term. I don't respond, and I walk to the back of the line. I consider how stupid it was of me to get on the career's bad side less than ten minutes into my first day of training. Then, I notice the careers have gathered around the agility track. Aleks is going to run it.
He runs up the ramp, and with a swift movement jumps over a rubber wacker used by the trainers, and immediately ducks underneath another one coming at him. He jumps to the next platform, and spins to miss a wacker on his right. He completes the rest of the track with ease. The careers clap, and I see him flash me a smile. My nerves are boiling, so I push through Dax and Jonas to the front of the line.
"When your ready," says a trainer. I take a deep breath, then head up the ramp and jump over the first wacker, ducking into the second one, that just barely skims my head. My confidence builds. I can do this! I'm just as good as any career! With that, I jump to the next platform, and get hit in the face with the next wacker, hard. It pushes me off the course and I fall to the mat on the ground below me. The careers stand there, laughing. All but Aleks.
"He's gonna kill you in the arena!" Shouts Felicia, Aleks's district partner, pointing to him.
"Hey hey hey," says Aleks, the same way he did when I ran into him. It must be a catchphrase of his. "We're all friends here." He flashes me another smile and turns back to the careers.
My rage has built up inside of me, and I storm over to the spear station. A big secret of mine is that Melanie and I hunt. Technically, we do not need to, since we live in the Victor's Village and have enough to eat. However, Dad did it when he was younger, and thought Melanie and I would enjoy it. Turns out we did, and when Melanie and I got old enough, we did it all on our own, almost every day. That's why I am so good with traps and differentiating poisonous plant life from edible ones. It is also why I am so good with a spear.
Melanie notices me, and comes over to where I'm standing. She looks shocked.
"What are you doing?" She asks, surprised about something.
"What do you mean, I'm showing them what I can do!" I respond, nodding over to the careers.
"You know it's a crime to hunt," Melanie explains. "How are you going to explain being so good with a spear if you grew up in District 12?"
"It's also a crime to train for the Hunger Games," I tell her matter-of-factly. "But that doesn't stop the kids in Districts 1 through 4 every single year! And it would also be good for you to show them what you can do with knives," I say. "We need sponsors, and we also might want an alliance."
Melanie stands there, arms crossed. "You know, you're going to get our entire family arrested, and maybe even killed."
"Hunting isn't even that big of a deal anymore!"
"Whatever you say." We stand there for a few seconds in silence. The careers are looking right at us. "Well, go ahead! Show them up!"
I let out a slight smile at Melanie's sudden approval. I pick up three spears, and put two in my left hand. I take a deep breath. Relax. If you have any tension, the spear won't go where you want. Just like my dad always told me. Without any further hesitation, I through the spears at the targets standing a few yards away. 1, 2, 3! All right in the center, just where I intended. I look at the careers, who have stopped snickering and instead have a look of anger on their face, including Aleks. I turn back to Melanie, and she lets out a slight smile. Then, Melanie surprises me.
She walks over to the knives, picks one up, and aligns herself with the target. Just as I did, she takes a deep breath. Before I know it, she throws the knife, with perfect form, and it hits the neck of the human target. Not the best, but Melanie isn't the one who usually does the killing while hunting. She is good, not great. I turn to look at the careers. Most have walked away, while Diamonda, Trinitee, and Riker, the District 4 boy, stand there angry. I flash a smile, one like Aleks had flashed me, and Diamonda storms over to Melanie and I, and gives me a big shove, sending me backwards a few steps. Bad idea on my part.
"So, what! You think you guys are special or something?!" Diamonda yells. "You're not the only ones who can throw weapons! What, you think you're like us! You're not special just because your mommy and daddy are victors!" She turns around, satisfied, and I pick up another spear. I throw it, right at the target. This sets Diamonda off.
Just as I had intended.
Diamonda runs back over to me, and pushes me. "You don't stand a chance in that arena, 12! I know exactly why you're here! You think you can win, just because your mommy and daddy won! Well guess what, 12! Some of us will win without mommy and daddy! Some of us…!" Riker comes and pulls her away, before she starts to get violent. She glares at me, and I realize that Diamonda is a very easily threatened person.
I can see her arguing with Riker, angry that he pulled her away. Melanie grabs me by the shoulder, and tells me to go with her. Before I can, I stop her, as the young 14-year-old from District 7, Keesha, is walking over to the archery station.
I can see the careers stop what they are doing. I here the District 2 boy, Onix, tell the group that "this should be good." Diamonda has calmed down, and is starting to smile and laugh again. I feel sorry for Keesha, about to embarrass herself in front of all those people.
"Come on Jake!" Melanie says again.
"Hold on," I say. "I just want to see this…"
"You want to see a young girl humiliate her-"
Before Melanie can finish the sentence, Keesha pulls back on the bow and lets her arrow fly. A perfect shot to the heart. I don't know what to feel except stunned. Melanie's jaw has dropped to the ground.
"How did she…" I start to ask, but I can't even finish my sentence. The young girl from District 7. Wow.
"Maybe she hunts too. You never know. People were probably just as shocked when they saw us with weapons."
Diamonda lets out a shriek from a few feet away, and kicks down a box of knives. The trainers come and pull her away. Before she is gone, Keesha walks by the careers. "You don't need a famous mommy and daddy to also be a threat," she says.
The careers are sure to not let us forget this. We have made them angry, and we will be their first targets in the arena. I have made 9 enemies now. The careers and Sahara. Maybe even 10, if Sahara has convinced that boy that was hugging on to her so tight at the reaping that I need to be killed.
"Hey Melanie," I say.
"Yeah Jake?"
"I think we should get some allies. This is going to be tough to do alone."
"Agreed," she responds without hesitation.
I will look for allies tomorrow. I spend the rest of my time in the training center trying to get myself better at agility and reaction time and camouflage. I use the fear and anger inside of me to fuel my will to improve at what I do.
10 enemies. 13 other tributes.
Maybe I will die in the initial bloodbath, and Melanie, the one who knows how to control her sarcasm and anger, will be the winner. Maybe my death will be quick and painless.
Maybe Max won't have to watch me suffer.